Cork University Hospital parking fees earned ‘obscene’ €2.3m last year

A Cork Labour Party senator has declared that the Government must move to abolish all parking charges for all public patients and healthcare staff in the forthcoming Budget 2026.

Figures provided to Labour social protection spokesperson and Kildare South TD Mark Wall, showed that Cork University Hospital had the biggest takings in car parking fees nationally, at €2,334,183. The amount for parking at CUH came from different price charges such as €35 for a weekly pass, €25 for a three-day pass and €10 max per one full day.

Stressing

Speaking to The Echo, Labour Senator Laura Harmon said: “The key thing here is when it comes to accessing healthcare, people shouldn’t have to be paying for parking across the country. People shouldn’t have to be stressing out about parking when they are going for hospital or medical appointments.

“It is a lot to be asking people to be paying for parking when they are seeking healthcare.”

Ms Harmon added: “We need better public transport infrastructure around CUH in general, in terms of bus service accessibility and in terms of live rail planning for the future.

“I think this highlights the need for better public transport in Cork as well, in terms of our bus service, in terms of speeding up the Luas.”

According to the figures, following CUH on the list of hospitals in Ireland with the biggest takings from car parking fees were St Vincent’s University Hospital, Tallaght University Hospital, St James’ University Hospital, University Hospital Waterford, University Hospital Limerick and Galway University Hospital.

Obscene

Commenting on Cork University Hospital having the biggest takings from car parking, Ms Harmon added: “It is obscene really. It is an obscene amount. But it is small in the grand scheme of things, in the sense that they should be able to abolish it in the budget and make this free.”

Labour Party Cork City Councillor Ciara O’Connor also commented on the current situation regarding CUH parking:

“It is actually deterring people from getting to their appointments.”